back three times on the ceiling. >> Good morning. We are going to call the July 22nd, 2025 Scott County Board of Commissioners meeting to order. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much. >> Okay, we're going to move on to item number three here on the agenda. We met earlier in a workshop session. Uh any amendments to the agenda? I did not see any. I always like to look and make sure I didn't miss anything. Otherwise, they will stand as distributed. Item number four, approving the minutes of the July 8th, 2025 board meeting. Are there any additions, deletions, anything you would like to change or I'll entertain a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve the July 8th uh minutes. >> Motion. >> Second. Any discussion? Otherwise, all in favor say I. >> I. I. >> All right. Minutes are passed. Item number five, recognition of interested citizens. One of my favorite uh times of these board meetings. If you would, is there anything or anyone would like to come and address the board for any reason for anything that is not on the agenda? I see a taker. Um, but please uh make your way over to the podium to avoid the rush. Good morning. >> Thank you. Commissioners. >> Oh, we got to go green there. There we go. >> Good morning, commissioners. Molly Bruner, community corrections director. I just wanted to take a minute or two and recognize and celebrate the dedicated professionals in my department and community corrections. It is national pre-trial probation and parole which in Minnesota that supervised release um week. And so it's a time where we can acknowledge the vital work that this department and my our staff do to keep our community safe, support rehabilitation, and promote positive change. So, our staff work tirelessly, often behind the scenes, to supervise our individuals, providing guidance and helping them reintegrate or rehabilitate as responsible, law-abiding citizens. Their efforts require compassion, professionalism, and deep commitment to public safety, values that they demonstrate consistently. Despite the challenges they face, our staff remain steadfast, demonstrating resilience and dedication. Their work is essential not only to reducing recidivism but also in restoring hope and building stronger communities. So today I just wanted to extend my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you that are here and not here in the room. Your hard work and integrity and compassion do not go unnoticed. They are the backbone of our community correction system and myself and I know many others are truly grateful for your service. So thank you for all that you do and we do have some here in the room. We also have a whole bunch downstairs taking motivational interviewing training that couldn't be up here um showing how much they're dedicated to their craft and trying to do the best for our people. So, thank you very much and thank you for what you do. >> Thank you very much. Thank you very much. >> Yes, thank you for doing all of that hard work um keeping society safe and and trying to get those other members back into society. So, so thank you for all the the work that you do. you know, that kind of hits home for me. So, uh, my daughter's in that in that realm. So, thank you so much for for for saying that. Anyone else? Anyone else like to make their way to the microphone? Going once, going twice. Okay, we're going to move on uh to the consent agenda, which we have nine items today. These will all pass with one motion. 6.1 adopt resolution number 2025-170 authorizing entering a contract with Damascus Way Re-entry Center, Inc. for a women's transitional housing program and a budget amendment. 6.2 2 adopt resolution number 2025-181 approving the reszone of 40 acres from A1 agricultural preservation district to A3 agricultural preservation density district Randy Kubish applicant and Richard Lee and Joan Elizabeth Dreamire property owners 6.3 adopt resolution number 2025-182 appro approving a final plat and conservation easements for Brink Business Park consisting of two lots Brink Development LLC applicant and property owner 6.4 adopt resolution number 2025-183 approve approving an interim use permit for a detached accessory dwelling unit Randall A. Wagner and Luan Wagner applicant and property owners 6.5 adopt resolution number 2025-186 authorizing entering into a master services agreement with Top Tall LLC for quality improvement consulting services 6.6 Six. Adopt resolution number 2025-187 approving the renewal application for an optional 2 am liquor permit for SSK Group LLC DBA Tavern in Spring Lake Township. 6.7 adopt resolution number 2025-188 authorizing the lawful gambling off-site permit for Jordan Fire Department relief association in San Creek Township. 6.8 Approve uh rec record of dispersements and approved claims. 6.9 approve payroll processing of personnel actions. Those are the nine items on consent. Members, what is your pleasure? >> Mr. Chair, I'll move approval of the consent agenda. >> All right. Second. >> We have a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion on these nine items? Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. All right. Consent agenda passes. Now, we're going to move on to item number 7.1, looking at adopting resolution number 2025-180, uh, approving an amendment to the CUP for Mid America Festivals Corporation related to on-site parking Mid America Festivals Corporation applicant. Brad, good morning. Good morning. I am Brad Davis, director of planning and resource management, and I'm going to start out this morning with uh just some background on the request. Um, as you know, I think the Renaissance Festival is a popular event here held in Scott County annually on the weekends from late August through either late September or early October. Um, you can see the number of visitors that attended last year and that's in line uh with what was uh those that attended in 2023. The county first issued uh Mid America Festivals the conditional use permit back in 1982 as a fair and fairgrounds and that allows them to operate the Renaissance Festival. It's been operating in its current location since 1973 and the permit has been amended there. You can see the years 98. Probably the most substantial uh amendment we'll talk about in a little bit is the one done in 2023 and then again last year. So that permit has 40 different condition conditions that are tied to the permit. And today we're really focused on condition number 32 that deals with parking and uh parking numbers. Um another thing that Mid America needs to do is submit annual operation plans each year for the upcoming season and uh they have submitted all of those required annual operational plans uh for the 2025 season. This is a site location map uh showing the location of the of the festival grounds and the parking areas. Um, as you know, it's located between Highway 169 and the Minnesota River uh between State Highway 41 and 145th Street. Mid America has leases or agreements with uh some of the underlying property owners where the uh Renaissance Festival occurs. Um the Kings, this is an aerial photo that was taken this spring, uh showing the festival grounds and then the King's Lot. You can see that the Kings Lot is an active mining area. And if you compare the spring 2025 aerial with last year's 24 aerial, you'd see that uh some mining has extended south on that King's Lot. So um most visitors or I should say all visitors uh arrive either by vehicle or by bus to attend the Renaissance Festival. There are two entrances into the festival grounds. the uh driveway access connecting to state highway uh 41 on the north and that is uh on SMSSC land and Brian Rock has access rights to use that roadway and then through that the Renaissance is able to use that north access point but it is a private access. The south entrance are public township roads uh Red Rock Drive on the 145th and then into the king's parking lot. Um this is a a site map that Mid America provides in their operational plans just showing the parking layout. Um there are um eight about 8,000 parking stalls in both Kings Lot and Queens Lot and this just shows the layout of those different parking areas. So, I think most of you were on the board when um the condition of use permit was amended back in 2023. That was in response to complaints uh from of traffic congestion that was backing up on local, county, and state roadways during the 22 uh festival season. You might remember that some of those event days in 2022 had about 10,000 to 13,000 vehicles entering the site on some of the busiest days. So, uh, major changes were made to the operations of the Renaissance Festival and then were um, uh, incorporated into the CUP amendment. Some of those changes including charging uh on-site parking for the first time, setting on-site parking limits, hiring a professional parking company, and increasing opportunities for bus ridership to the event. So, I think everyone agrees that with those changes, the 2023 and 2024 seasons were very successful when it comes to alleviating the traffic congestion that we saw in 2022. So this slide shows the total attendance uh at the Renaissance Festival uh in 2024 and 2023 for the weeks that are shown there the different weekends or in some cases Fridays, Saturday and Sunday. Um you can see by the numbers when you look at attendance the uh weekends in mid to late September tend to generate the most uh attendance in both we saw that both in 23 and in 24. And then in the yellow columns is the um shows the number of vehicles that um were parked on the property. You can see how many parking passes were pre- purchased versus how many were purchased day of. People uh arrived at the gate and were able to buy a a pass at the gate. And then you have the total there. Not everyone that prepays actually shows up. So then you actually see the daily scanned in. So those are the true number of vehicles that were parked each of those event days. Again, it's in uh mid to late September that you start seeing um parked vehicles uh reach 7,000 and even exceed 7,000 because they were allowed to resell after 130. On the transit side, this is data uh from last season showing again by each weekend how many um cars parked at each of the different park and ride lots or how many riders um left those park and ride lots to to go to the festival. Um in 2024, um as you look across all the uh dates, 23.4% 4% of patrons arrive by transit, which is I think a a a really um just indicates just how much they've they've worked on providing different bus opportunities to the festival. And this is this number is similar to what we saw in 2023. It was 22% of patrons that arrived by bus. And I think this is an important metric to to keep uh eyes on if if we are going to see any changes to uh the amendment. I think all of us will want to uh kind of track what's the transit writership in 2025. So going into the 2025 festival season, there's just a couple of notable transportation or land use considerations. Um Southwest Transit, which is one of the bus providers, will be adding Labor Day to their service schedule. So, we hope that uh provides again um good transit opportunities for patrons. On the land use side, um the Dakota Prairie Composting Facility, which I know many of you are familiar with, that is now open and uh will be operating this fall and uh if you know the location of that, it shares the that north entrance road off of Highway 41. The composting facility will be open on Saturdays this fall uh during the festival season from 8:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Uh in the staff reports you'll see some initial uh information from Dakota Prairie uh estimating that uh on Saturdays there could be up to 100 to 200 large commercial hauler trucks using that access road and I guess intermixing with um Renaissant Renaissance Festival patron traffic uh during those Saturdays. So, Mid America has uh proposed two amendments. Originally, it was three, but they withdrew the uh one that you see on the bottom there. That withdrawal letter was included in your packet. Um so, they are no longer looking to utilize the green fairy lot for overflow parking. So, we'll really focus on the remaining two amendments. The first one is to increase the number of on-site parking passes that they can sell daily from 7,000 up 10% to 7,700. And then the second one is allowing the reselling or we sometimes use the term backfilling or sometimes replenishing of those daily on-site parking passes as vehicles exit the site. But they want no time restriction uh to do that. Currently, the amendment that happened last year set that reselling only could occur after 1:30 p.m. in the afternoon. Again, at no time could the on-site parking exceed uh 7,000 or if there is a change, it would be 7,700. Any questions so far before we uh go deeper into some of the analysis of these amendments? >> Just just one clarification if I may. the the the parking because they've got the the uh professional parking service. So, they I don't know if each spot's numbered or however that's uh done, but they know real time as cars are coming and going. >> They know real time. Yep. That is my understanding. They're able to monitor real time cars coming in and cars leaving. >> It's not like radio like, oh, I got 14 here. It's it's >> to my understanding they are able to monitor that monitor that at the at the exits. entrance and exit. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Uh question, uh do we have numbers showing unused spots that that became vacant before 1:30? In other words, the people arrived in the morning, they left, but that spot couldn't be used till after 1:30. Do we have the number of unused spots that occurred because of that? >> I do not have that number. No, I do not have the number of stalls that are that are left empty before 1:30. There may be others in the room that do have that data and um if the board or the chair can decide if they want to bring up other speakers to answer some of those questions, but I do not have that information. All right, so let's take each amendment at a time here. The first one again is to increase the number of daily parking passes sold by 10%. As I've mentioned earlier, uh based on the 2022 situation, the uh the cup was amended to establish that maximum number uh each day that the Renaissance could sell daily parking passes. It is set at 5,000 vehicles, but it can increase to 7,000 vehicles if three performance dependencies are met. And in the staff report, we list what those dependencies are. and and Mid America has met all three of those dependencies for the 2025 season. I think um it was discussed last year and it it comes up again this year that um there is about a 10% no show rate. So that's the percent of people that buy a ticket online or excuse me a parking pass online pre- purchase that but don't actually redeem it. And so Mid America Festivals in their application said that the requested 10% increase would compensate for that no-show rate. You might recall that that 7,000 maximum was um set based on county staff's evaluation of of kind of what's the overall capacity of the festival site to accommodate the arrival, entrance, queuing, and parking of vehicles that does these three things. doesn't create a backup or spillovers of traffic onto the local county or state roads. Allows for the efficient effective movement of transit buses entering the site and allows for the safe passageway of emergency vehicles into and out of the site. So, those were the three kind of overarching criteria that staff looked at when it evaluated um some of the modeling that was done to to arrive at that 7,000 maximum. Um the uh Mid America Festival's traffic consultant SRF did that traffic impact study in 23 and as I mentioned modeled a 5,000 vehicle scenario and 8,000 vehicle scenario and then they even I I believe went to a 10,000 vehicle scenario. And what the study found is that kind of that maximum site capacity of about 8,000 vehicles uh the site can handle 8,000 vehicles without resulting any apparent festival traffic congestion. Once that threshold is uh reached, it could cause some some of that congestion and spill over onto the supporting roadways. They do note though that that 8,000 capacity could increase if parking operations moved from what was kind of a volunteer basis or a volunteer uh parking situation to a professional parking firm which it uh did hire in for the 2023 and 2024. It will be in place again in 2025 and it's my understanding that interstate parking is under contract through the 2027 festival season. So, if um al if uh just a reminder that um there's 8,000 parking stalls roughly between the Kings lot and the Queens lot under dry conditions. If all 7,700 vehicles um were parked on the site at one time, the Kings and Queens lot would be at about 96.2 capacity. have another question if I might. >> Uh, okay. I'm I'm seeing those numbers. Um, where does the staff where where do the where the employees or booth operators where do they park and how do those numbers get factored into the capacity? >> Yep. So, there is a dedicated parking stall for the vendors, for the workers. Um, that is not included in that 8,000 count for just patrons. >> Okay. those vehicles get uh counted to in this overall modeling. So that uh 8,000 modeling wasn't just patrons, but it included everyone that's coming in out of the site, which would include workers or vendors. >> Okay. >> Can I ask quick u Brad? So 7,000 people can buy tickets at this point and 10% are no shows. That is what the he applicant is saying. >> So about 6,300 then come then instead of 7,000 is that right? >> So if we were to increase that number 10% 10 some of those people would not show either. So it would still be short of 7,000 by 70 people. Is that correct? >> I have not done the math. Okay. Commissioner heading >> I did the math >> but I trust your math. >> It's right. No. Yeah. But so it would still be short of the 7,000 people even by adding 700. >> Yep. >> Is that what you guys think, too? >> Yeah. Okay. >> All right. >> Pointing to the interstate parking. >> Yep. The >> Okay. >> eight folks at home. >> All right. Then we'll go to the second request which is again um amending condition 32 to allow uh interstate parking to uh resell or backfill or replenish those parking passes at any time not wait till after 1:30 in a number equal to the number of vehicles that leave the site with continuous monitoring. So, you may remember last year this uh specific topic was discussed at the township at the planning commission, then the county board, and everyone agreed to allow this uh to happen and uh have it begin at 1:30 p.m. And then this board uh specifically said, let's do it for the 2024 festival season only. So, give it a one-year trial period and see how it works. Um, and as I showed you earlier that um, on three occasions last fall, the uh, company resold tickets that it that then resulted in more than 7,000 vehicles on the prop on the site. You can see the dates of September 14th, the 21st, and the 28th, and how many um, vehicles were actually parked those days. So, um this year the applicants are requesting that we um delete the for 2024 season only and make that a permanent allowance and on top of that remove that 1:30 start time and leave it to the discretion of interstate parking uh to determine when back filling should occur each event day. So, the reason for that, as is mentioned in the report, is there was a date last year on September 28th when that 7,000 parking limit was reached at about 11:30. And that, of course, is 2 hours before they could start replenishing. And um in the application material, there's some drone images that the applicant provides and just some narrative uh of what they observed during those two hours that because they were not a able to backfill um with diverting traffic or vehicles just waiting that caused backups onto 169 even though there they uh believe there was ample available on parking stalls on site. So to avoid that situation moving forward, that is uh what's prompting them to request the removal of the 1:30 start time. This is some data that uh they've provided um for the last couple of seasons. This is for 2024. The 2023 figure is pretty similar and it shows the number of uh inbound vehicles. Um and that's in the lighter blue. Um, and then in green is the outbound vehicles from the site. And as what you would expect, a lot of patrons arrive uh at that 9 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 uh to enjoy their uh full day at the festival. Many though um by about noon uh may leave and that's when you start seeing that outbound traffic between about uh 12:30 12:45 um where you start seeing more um vehicles leaving the site than entering the site for the rest of the day. So, it was data like this that that uh county staff had recommended last year to establish 1:30 as the start time to allow that turnover to uh happen before you start replenishing the parking stalls. So, um we'll get to staff's recommendation. This is outlined in um different letters and in the staff report. Um, and I'll just go through it. The at a staff level, uh, we are recommending denying both amendments. It is staff's opinion that both amendments run counter to that overarching goal that was set in 2022 to have busing or transit be the preferred option for patrons and not bring uh, more uh, vehicles to park on the site. That number should be 8,000 total parking stalls. Again, as I mentioned earlier, bringing the increasing to 7,700 would bring the lot capacity to 96%. If you recall, if you uh increase that number, um you're now about 300 shy of that modeled 8,000 threshold. Um no room for error there as you get closer and closer to that 8,000. And in particular this season, there's going to be that increased Saturday traffic on the north entrance road that I guess there's some uncertainty as to how much traffic is that really going to generate. But until we uh see that traffic on a Saturday, we don't know what that's going to mean to to the uh efficient flow of traffic on that north end. It is staff's belief that allowing back filling at any time throughout the event day will disincentivize pre- purchasing of those tickets. Once patrons learn they can drive right to the venue and wait until a stall opens, there will be less reason to pay in advance. So, these are the reasons that staff did not support it. And uh some of those staff are in the room here. If you have questions, we have Mark Callahan, our county traffic engineer, who provided a comment letter in your packet on expressing some of these concerns. Captain Steve Collins and his team who actually run the day-to-day operations of traffic is in the room to is available to answer any questions. >> Thank you. >> So, that is staff's recommendation. Oh, then uh those those recommendations were forwarded to the township. The township met on this uh back earlier this month. Um they recommended it would be appropriate to give the Renaissance Festival an opportunity to prove that they can manage the traffic to the site provided there are safeguards built into uh the changes. So on a vote of 3 to zero, they recommended uh a revised condition 32 that would for the 2025 season only. I want to emphasize that. So, it's what they're recommending is a one-year trial. Allow those daily parking passes to increase to 7,700 and allow the interstate parking to resell or replenish at any time. >> They did. >> So, I have a few questions I want to actually ask before we got to this slide, but if I could the 10% no show. No, I wonder how that was calculated because if you did it over the whole Renaissance Festival season, I'm sure the weather wasn't perfect on all those days. So, I wonder if the no-shows on a on a rainy bad day skew that 10% no-show. On a beautiful day, is it still 10% no-show? I don't I don't know. So, that's a question. The other question I have is I'm not sure how the mechanics works on this. Let's just say we said you can replenish at any time, but we said no, you can't increase the parking. They replenish at any time and then they have people that have bought. How isn't there a chance that they will oversell? I mean, how does that work? I don't know the dynamic that prevents them from overselling if they can repenish it at any time. Yep. Uh those are really operational questions that I'm not going to be able to answer here at the podium. There are people in the room that could definitely answer that question. >> Another question coming. >> Um chair, I would recommend that we we discuss this um each portion of the um amendment separately. So section A um regarding the replenishing and section B regarding the number of parking stalls parking available. Um, that's that would be what I recommend. That might help. >> Well, I you know, I don't know about that because it seems to me that there's a strong relationship between the two. Um, if you said no to capacity, then there's more question about replenishing at any time. I if you have more capacity, then I think there's potentially less problem with replenishing at any time. So, I think there's a relationship there between the two. But I want to maybe the parking guys can shed some insight on that. >> Yeah. And I'm I think in the interest of getting our questions answered, I'm certainly open to understanding those mechanics better. >> I'll I'll uh if you allow me, Mr. Chair, I'll finish my I'll finish my presentation and I'll stand down and you can call up who you need to answer questions. >> Yep. So then um so the township's recommendation you see is A and B there. And then they did uh recommend what what we refer to as some safeguard language. And what we mean by that is there's kind of a what a whatif language. >> So that's what you see in italics there that was offered up by the township that if county staff determines that there is uh congestion caused by these two changes, we could revoke this uh 2025 allowance and they'd revert back to where they were uh 7,000 1:30 p.m. All right. So then that's up there. Also in the public record are some comment letters. We received a comment letter from the Shaki Medawakatan Sue community. That letter is included in your staff uh in your board packet. Um they recommended two things in that le letter. They recommended a full archaeological review of property where the green ferry lot is located prior to utilizing that lot. And then they also uh on item two did not support additional traffic or changes that would impact the Dakota Prairie composting traffic. You can see those comments in the letter. Um it was probably in response to one of those comments that we saw the letter then withdrawing that portion of the amendment uh no longer looking to utilize the green fairy lot. the two private uh bus providers, Richfield and Loren's provided a comment letter also included in your packet um just noting the uh improvements that have been made and the investments that have been made in transit opportunities. So I want you to be aware of that. Um the public hearing was held last uh week. We had um comments from the applicant, the township uh one township supervisor and one neighboring property owner. they all generally supported the township's recommendation and do that one-year trial period. Uh uh based on all that input, uh the planning commission uh did recommend approval of both of those changes uh on a vote of 6 to1 incorporating the township's recommended safeguard language. So that's what you have before you today is a resolution advancing the recommendations from the Louisville Town Board and the Planning Commission. And the language includes that safeguard language. Um that condition 32 would end like this. Um essentially again saying that the county staff has sole discretion to determine if these changes create a backup that the uh 2025 minutes are revoked and um it would revert back to 7,000 max and back filling at 130. I think it's important to note too that the existing CP has even what I'd call even further safeguard language and that's in condition 33 that gives the county board of commissioners, that's the five of you, the uh sole authority to reopen and amend this permit to either increase or decrease the number of on-site parking tickets by 10%. That's something that you have the authority to do, but it needs to be done prior to the upcoming season. It has to be done before May 1st. So, it's not it's not something you'd be able to do for the 2025 season, but you have the power to uh enact condition 32 for the 2026. So, with that, I will stand for any further questions or stand down. >> Well, go back two slides. I think it was this one um with the safeguards. So, so okay, if if things go ary, we would have these conditions or this safeguard language, but in the heat of the moment operationally, what would that look like? If there's, you know, Dakota Prairie's got 100 to 200 trucks going, Maltto's got trucks going, Hermans has trucks going. Um, Sever, you know, everything's going on and all of a sudden, boom, 41, 169, you know, even Peepers backed up. Um, in that moment, what would this language allow us to do or not to do? >> Because that that's I I get this. This could happen like for the next weekend or maybe the next day depending on what has happened. But in the moment, what would that look like? Do we know what that would look like operationally? >> There has been discussions uh that I've had with Deputy Collins on that exact question and and maybe if Deputy Collins wants to come up, he can speak to kind of some of his thoughts on at the moment um solutions to those issues. Yeah, that would be helpful for for at least I would be very interested in knowing what that would look like. Um >> because in that role you would be you're contracted by the Renfest to do the traffic control, but you're in your uniform and now things are start backing up operationally. What what would that look like? >> Uh good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Uh the first thing we would do in that scenario is work with interstate parking and come up with a plan and we would work together whether that be stopping inbound traffic at the two entry points and routing them along the roadways there or bringing them in and turning them around. Uh we we would come up with a plan together with interstate parking >> ahead of the game. I mean we'd have that plan in place before the fall. So >> uh I'm sorry I was answering that as if it happened in the moment. >> Yes. Like but I'm just saying so so but the plan procedurally we would need that plan sort of in place to know that if it happens like you're not hey walkie-talkie one what do we that plan is like okay we we hit this threshold or safeguard or whatever we call it boom traffic starts going to this loop back here or goes to this lot like that would be in place like in the next month or two right to know what that would look like so that when it does happen in the moment there is So, what do we do now? It's in place. >> Correct. Um, so there it's a large area and there are a lot of signage, a lot of signage, a lot of people in different areas. So, it wouldn't be something that we would all realize at the same time. >> We would have to communicate and work together. >> Um, and once we identified that issue, then then we would deal with it. >> Okay. I I think we still have some questions we could answer. >> I think you know some of the question the parking guys have heard the questions so maybe they could come up and speak. >> Yeah, please. >> I suppose name rank and serial number for the record. >> Can while they're coming up, I'm just going to make a comment. You know, Commissioner asked about rain events. Last fall there was no rain. I mean for like the whole Renaissance in my if I'm wrong I mean I I didn't have any nobody in this area but I'm pretty sure it was dry as a >> Yeah. So now >> all right >> good morning Mr. Chair uh commissioners John Matscoll with SRF consulting I'm kind of responsible for the overall plan and that off streetet uh type operation type of thing. Uh Tony and Jesse are here with Interstate Parking. They manage the parking, the on-site, and actually the day-to-day operations. Um, changing our portable message signs, etc., which are very active, uh, and and, uh, um, working with that. So, to start it off, I just kind of want to talk about some of the things that you've I've heard in the discussion here. uh the question about uh uh parking uh passes and transit and things like that. Um and then the uh no-show uh comments. So, we do track this. I'm responsible for reporting to Brad after the weekend uh this information here, the attendance information, the transit information, give a spreadsheet by day with what's going on. Uh the question as it as it comes to uh no shows and percentages, we can track that on a on a daily basis after the fact. Um the 10% is an average. Um there is a little variation between good days and bad days uh in show. But overall it's not like 20% one uh you know because it didn't rain and it's uh 6% on a good day. um they're they're all hovering around that 9.8 to 10% uh through the process and and like I said we can that that's all easily reported by day um to do that um the uh over the last two years which we've got a lot of on-site data. We can model all that we want but models are just models based on assumptions. Um, and we did do the modeling in 2022 or well 2023 for the 2023 plan. Uh, and we did model the the 5,000, the 8,000, and we modeled a 10,000. And we know that the 5,000 worked, the 8,000 worked. And somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000, it failed because the 10,000 failed, but we did not refine it any further to determine where that is. We just said 10,000 works. um as a thing when we came to the county board, county wanted to be more conservative yet and we set the level at 7,000 for uh parking on site. The way that we manage this and interstate manages it is that that's not when we hit this limit. We say we hit this limit at 11:30 in the morning at we had 7 we did not have 7,000 vehicles on site. we had 7,000 passes sold. So if there was uh 6,500 passes that were pre-sold and they Interstate Parking sold 500 on site because people came and we, you know, didn't want to turn them around. If you recall when we set this up, that causes confusion. and they already had sold 500 at the higher price because it's $30 instead of 15. Even though we don't have the other ones there, our understanding of the cup was we can't sell it because we have to guarantee that we've got room for those 7,000 vehicles or the 6,500 that bought passes and didn't show up. What we found over the last two years is that everybody doesn't show up first thing in the morning. That is our peak period, but we have people that show up for the early stuff. Uh, you know, families, things like that that will show up for the can and shoot and the 9:00 opening. Very few people stay from 9:00 in the morning until 7 o'clock at night. people come in the morning or they'll come in the afternoon because they like the evening uh type stuff. So, we end up with this period of time that everybody doesn't show up. So, there's a a mis misunderstanding or a some confusion over when we say we hit the 7,000 limit, that's not 7,000 vehicles on site. That's 7,000 total passes sold for the day. So over the last two years, there's been two times that from my perspective off streetet, which we were hired to do, is to keep people off of 41, off the township roads and things like that, there's been two events that have caused us to back up traffic onto 169. 41. We've not had an issue with vehicles backing up on 41, but we have had it on 169. And that's when the train, one of them is when the train comes. Um, we can't do anything about a train. I mean, it's got the access blocked and things like that. There's there's nothing we can do. We manage um interstate parking uses a portable changeable message signing, you know, you know, event traffic, caution ahead, things like that to warn people on 169. But even at that, the the cues have rarely gotten beyond the bridge at 147th uh when a train has shown up. And once a train goes passes that south entrance, it clears very quickly. Um they're able to move the traffic through. They've got a plan set. uh and they work at that. They actually start changing the signs on the on the uh 169. If the train's coming from the south, they will change the signs and direct everybody to use the north north exit to go up to 41 until the train gets by and then they switch it when the train goes by and vice versa to manage that. They put the drone up so they can see what's going on and they really do overall manage the parking lot. The other type of event that we have issues with have and the only time we backed on 169 is when we say we're closed. The 7,000 limit has been hit and we have to turn people away or turn them around. That is when we have caused backups on 169. And I call that in our case that is something we can do about and that's what we've looked at over the last two years is what can we do about keeping traffic off of those streets and 169 for me is the worst case scenario. If you've ever been stopped due to a crash or anything else and you're the last person in line on a high-speed roadway, it's not very comfortable. And if we can do anything to mitigate that, we should from a safety perspective. That's what we've looked at. That one I see is in our control. And when we came last year and asked for the ability to infill, so to speak, it was because we had room on site to put people. We had room on site to put it. We have not had quote 7,000 on-site parked permanently. Uh so the lot wasn't full, so to speak. Let's get the vehicles off the roadway, get them parked, and you know, fully understand how people are arriving and leaving. Nobody wants to go back to 2022. Nobody wants to go there. Interstate parking doesn't want to go there. SRF doesn't want to go there. And we're the ones that are kind of asking for this because we think we can do a better job and make it safer to accomplish the goal that you wanted, which is keep people off the roads. Um the uh so in in doing that um last year when we we looked at this and in your packet in our request on page four there's actually what it looked like on 169 in the background with cars packed up there and down below what the status was at the queen's lot and the king's lot at 11:30 in the morning on the same day. And there's still some room in the kings lot and the queen's lot is virtually wide open and we told people that we don't have room and that's because those prepaid passes have not all showed up yet and they're not there. So we asked for the I understand why we did last year at 130 because there's that um that point where the uh I got to find it here. Brad, >> I'll go the other direction. other direction. There's this inflection point right here. Um, you know, that was set at 1:30 last year because the number of vehicles leaving exceeds the number of vehicles arriving. So, the green line is the leaving. But what doesn't tell the story here is is that people actually start leaving. If you look at the green line, they start leaving in a lower capacity about 10:00. By 11:00 in the morning, they start to ramp up and and are leaving the slope of the line. At the same time, if you look at uh you know, from 10:00 to 11:00, it starts to arrivals start to decrease a bit. at 11 o'clock, that slope of the line almost matches the amount of people that are leaving at that point in time. So, if we if we make it at 1:30 or make it at that inflection point, we're 100% assured, absolutely 100% assured, there are more people leaving than than coming in because our data shows that. But what it doesn't account for is the stuff in that that uh from 11 o'clock to 1:30 type of thing that we've had people leave and be able to fill. So last year twice uh we did have to um implement the we're full, we don't have any space. The first time we did it was on the 14th of September. We did back up on 169. Uh, but it happened at about 1:00, so we only had about a half hour that we had to quote hold traffic, so to speak, for bringing them in, and it cleared very quickly. The one on the 28th did not, and it it it prompted concerns. I know that I personally called Captain Collins and said, "We have issues. Um, you know, we'd like to be able No, we have to follow the requirement of the CUP." I called uh traffic engineer Mark Callahan. We talked and I even talked to uh planning director Brad Davis later in the day as well because it was that much of a concern because I felt it was something we could control and it having been involved in emergency services myself and doing this for a profession with that traffic back on 169 it bothered me because it was within our control. So that's why we're here again and asking and I understand the concern about you know what's going to happen. We've got uh the uh uh composting site Dakota Composting. We've met with Dakota Composting Dusting Dusty uh or Dustin uh who operates it. Uh Captain Collins, myself, MAF to work out a plan. Uh the the the nice thing is with the uh composting site is it's 2:00 that they're only open till the heavy rush out 41 for the exit is really in the evening. Um so when people are coming in that's not an issue. We've never queued. Um I mean we cue for people that are waking to make the lefthand turn because of maybe how they're directing traffic, but we've never queued traffic back to 41 onto the site. So once they make the turn, they're be able to get into the composting site with no problems. Coming out, they'll be subject to traffic control. Um Dakota Prairie's big concern was is that our operation is set up that everybody exiting all day long had to turn right and go up to 169 or go up to Democon and make a U-turn and come back. Their concern was is the large trucks can't do that. Um they have large trucks that will need to make a left at 41 when they come out. Uh and we devised a plan and worked with a plan with Captain Collins to do that and they'll direct traffic similar to what's done with uh uh Marcus Marietta when they're running asphalt plan. uh it just makes the officers have to do a bit more uh be more active in the traffic management uh to deal with that issue. Um when it comes to the backup and getting to the moment stuff that happens in the moment, uh we've got a lot of safeguards in place ahead of time uh to catch that uh to see, you know, traffic coming up. We know on a on a I I can call Jesse up uh at any point in time. He can tell me how many people they have parked on site, how much room we have left, any left, and things like that. We have in our plan, our event management plan, there's conditions in there. There's signing that goes into place. There's things that MAF does, the Renaissance Festival by putting tweets out, you know, that lots full. We've done that with the park and rides last year saying Eagle Creek is full. use this one instead. Uh we can do all of that information and get it out ahead of time if we get a crash or something that were to block it up. That really is a moment type thing. And that's where we have to work with Captain Collins and whatever and say what are we going to do? What do we want to do here to deal with it? And it's on the site type thing that that we manage uh in that regard. But getting to a point where we wouldn't have any place to put them uh type of thing is something that we will know way ahead of time uh before that. We won't get into a situation that the parking is full uh by doing that. And even if we're we're authorized to go hire if Interstate parking says, "Hey, we've got some issues here." They can shut it down. They don't have to bring people in. They can shut it down at that point in time. So I guess what we're asking in in the the long run is is you know Renaissance Festival they were very apprehensive in the first year 2023. They'd never charged for parking before. Concerned about how many people were going to come via parking rides and things like that. A big expense. They have not gone cheap on the parking rides. They're not using shuttle bus or school buses and things like that. They've rented coaches. You know MVTA has coaches. Southwest has coaches. They want a good experience coming in. Um the it's worked very well with Canterbury Park. People seem to know how to get there and things like that. They've made big investments in doing that and Southwest coming on board last year with their first year. Uh they were very happy with the wrership um that they're actually adding Labor Day this year both to the fair uh and to uh the Renaissance Festival. So, um, you know, the commitment to transit, uh, if you saw the article in 2023, uh, that we showed here, someone had done a go to the Renaissance Fair and never take your vehicle from downtown St. Paul, take the green line to Minneapolis, take the orange line down to the Burnsville Transit Hub, take the Burnsville Transit Hub right to Renaissance. You can go and come back. Um, good press, good media, 23% ridership, which is up a little bit this year. They're adding some more buses. Uh, we're adding some more buses to the event uh to help improve that. So, there is that commitment. Um, and so, you know, in in my closing to my end uh on that is that we are very very committed to this being a good experience all the way around for everybody. We've worked with the businesses. We want to make it better. uh we want to eliminate any uh issues that we can ahead of time particularly ones that might be as I would say self-inflicted uh that can management meet your concerns help them operate well and give everybody a a good express. So from the exterior which is what you see from there if you have questions about the interior and how it operates and the parking management I can bring Tony or Jesse up uh at that point. So, if there's no other questions of me or any questions of me, I could answer those. >> You have some insight you want to give on the mechanics of this? >> Sure, >> if that's okay. >> Yeah, >> we're here. >> Mr. Chair, commissioners, uh, good morning. I'm Tony Janowick, CEO and founder of Interstate Parking. Nice to see y'all again. Time flies. I feel like I just saw you last week, but it was last year. I I believe so. Um I don't want to repeat everything John said. I think you did a very good job outlining kind of the overall intent and strategy behind the traffic management plan and how we execute that. Are there specific procedural items that I can focus on for you? >> Okay. I'm wondering about this um u replenish at any time. Mhm. >> Um, how would that uh work if you were not given the extra parking? Would there be a potential of accidentally overselling if you didn't get the additional, you know, 700 spots or whatever it is. Um, that's one thing I'm wondering. I'm wondering about the, you know, if we if we said, "No, we're not going to do replenish anytime. We'll do it at noon." uh you know just talk a little bit about that. >> Sure. Yeah. And um I think earlier you had made a very intuitive comment about the two being related which they absolutely are. They can be handled um on a mutually exclusive basis but they do work in tandem meaning the additional capacity request as well as the um ability to backfill without a time restriction to that. In short, with the additional capacity request, the probability of reaching 7,700 and having to consider backfilling is diminished dramatically. Based on historical numbers, we wouldn't have really ever even had to consider backfilling if we just had the higher capacity to start with. Could there be a scenario that we reached the new capacity and still would need to trigger backfill to eliminate traffic backups on the roadways? Sure, that could happen. Um, from the opposite perspective, if we were not granted the additional capacity, then the need to enable backfill without a time restriction becomes absolutely imperative. I've been doing this for 25 years. We operate large event venues across the country. This is the only large event venue that I've ever heard of that has a time restriction to backfilling. It's one of the most important tools that we have as professional traffic management operators. And um while I understand the original intent of not granting that three years ago, um the fact that we don't have that tool available to us today is is very peculiar and frustrating for us as a professional operator. Um so that the um the datadriven recommendations behind the additional capacity um is frankly the fact that the original uh limitations did not take into account the no-show factor. And I think that was probably a data point that was just um too too hard to prove that industry norms would apply to the Renaissance Festival. So, we didn't really focus on that much. With two years of data, we're now showing that the no-show factor at the Renaissance Festival is almost identical to every other large venue that we operate. Whether it be American Family Field for the Milwaukee Brewers, whether it's the Wisconsin State Fair, whether it's the Utah State Fair, Arizona Athletic Grounds, they all end up with about a 10% no-show factor. Um, so increasing the 7,000 to the 7,700 honestly is more or less asking for what we originally applied for. Um, because what our original intent was was to have 7,000 physical vehicles on site. Um, not taking into account no-show. And this just kind of gets us to where the site can actually handle that. As John mentioned, while we can while while we have independently confirmed that the site can handle 8,000 vehicles um physical on-site parking capacity, the 7,700 um capacity request with the normal routine no uh would be, you know, around 7,7100 vehicles parked on site. So, we're not really at that 97% of capacity. We would never ask for that. Honestly, I would never recommend, in my professional opinion, that you would allow pre-sales. That could equate to 97% of your on-site capacity. That would be a really bad idea. So, we are actually, you know, suggesting that we end up at about 86% on-site capacity with this new um threshold limit. Um, so that's that's kind of my commentary and background to the capacity increase. I would be surprised honestly if we have to even go into the back fill procedure if we have that new capacity. The the back fill procedure to me should be um a very uh logical approval of this commission, it uh if you ask any large event venue or even others in my industry how important of a tool that is to achieve the desired results of the cup of the intent of the cup that you've approved. um we just honestly need it. We we need the right to backfill when we when we deem it necessary and when the when the availability is on site. That feature does not disincentivize transit. It does not discourage people taking the bus. Um the consumer pricing that's set up is the biggest encouragement of transit. As you know, last year we only backfilled one day, didn't change our transit numbers on the days that we didn't have to close down, right? There's plenty of motivation. and people love the transit option if that's what they want to do. Um so for all these reasons and just you know having now successfully achieved the results that we have for the past two years and with our experience nationwide um I just I think this is right down main street for this commission to seriously consider and in my professional opinion I think you would be uh very very satisfied with uh even the um the changes that this will result in for this year like like John mentioned the one day that we couldn't con the one day that we could control backing up on the surrounding roads in 169, we didn't have the tool in our hands to do it. And that to me is kind of silly. Um, uh, Captain Collins made a good point about the day of stuff. It goes way beyond the recycling center. We deal with accidents. You know, if there's an accident at an exit, we immediately adjust. We're in immediate contact with Captain Collins and his staff, who are fantastic, by the way. We're immediately changing the changeable message signs. Um, I would liken kind of the in the- moment changes to, frankly, the normal procedure for handling trains. There are no two train crossings that are created equal, right? Um, when we have a train approaching, we fly the drone up. We measure the distance of the train. We monitor its speed. We identify how long it's going to take to pass the crossing, whether it's going to bridge both crossings on 41 and Red Rock. Those data points um are what translates to our train mitigation plan for that specific train. So, every train crossing we handle a little differently. And then of course you have the train crossings where the train chooses to stop and and then the question is how long is it going to stop for? As soon as a train stops and of course as you know Canadian Pacific doesn't give us a heads up on what it's going to do. So we have to monitor what the physical train is going to do. As soon as that train stops we are immediately going into uh how much distance we have in terms of time on Red Rock to know, okay, here's the traffic flow coming in off of 169. How long do we have until we hit 169? Right? If we have 10 or 15 minutes, we'll use that capacity and and let the train pass. If we start to get more than 60% to 169, that's when we start changing the message signs. We start using 41. And um last year, it was either last year or the year before, we had a train that actually broke down and it was there for 45 minutes. We shut Red Rock down alto together and had virtually no backups because that mitigation plan is so effective. We just brought everybody in on 41 for the day. Uh the last comment I'll make um just as an additional data point regarding the recycling center. Last year for the la for the final three weekends, we actually did our own stress testing on site to um model what it would look like if we had to eliminate an entire ingress lane uh to allow dedicated truck traffic going into the recycling center. So, not to dive too deep in the details, but under normal operating conditions, we have two roads going in off of 41. So, once you're on our on-site road, there's two ingress roads that we use. We shut one down just to test could we handle the ingress without backing up to 41 in the event that we had to dedicate an entire roadway just to the recycling center. And we had zero issues. These are big weekends. We never had cars backing up to 41. So, we know that in a worst case scenario, even if we had to dedicate an entire lane just to the recycling center, um we can handle the ingress volume with no problems. >> All right. Thank you. Yeah, I think one of the interesting things about this is all things being equal, this likely would have been a consent item, quite frankly. Um, I just think there's been, which predates my time on this board, um, a level of frustration with parking, with road improvements, with this, with that, that there's, that's where you're seeing this leeriness of it kind of bubbled over in the last few years of where even some people that are proponents of it today were madder than all get out not that long ago. Um, you know, we we don't want people missing their kids and grandkids birthday parties, right? We've been after real parking uh solutions out there for a long, long time. And I think one of these days we're going to see a report. Maybe not a red line, maybe not a blue line, maybe not a green line, but the skyrocketing amount of turkey legs that have been sold since parking has gone on. See, I'm looking for a smile back there. I got one. Um because we want this to be successful. We all want this to be successful, but the body of work is like, you know, things have been said, not always happened. and and so the the outside parking has been has been made a big difference. That's where you're seeing the are we in this thing together? Is this um or is this more just chitchat? >> I I totally get it. I mean, I wouldn't have a job if there weren't the problems that occurred, which is a silver lining for me, I guess. But the reality is the last two years hopefully the community and certainly our our neighbors and um opponents turn good friends like I think Bob is here. We spend a lot of time together every year at the Renaissance Festival which I look forward to probably more than he does. >> Okay. Now you got that guy was so mad he was wearing pants. That's how mad he was cuz he wears shorts. That's cuz he always wears shorts. Um he's always wearing something but that's how mad he was. And now >> and I get it. We that's some of the original provisions in the cup um were perplexing to me but understandable because I came in at a point where it had boiled over and I'm like I get it. We're we're we're the Renaissance Festival is being uh heavily restricted until they figure this out, right? Totally get it. um from my perspective since I've been involved just for the past um two years I guess our our request and and our our commitment to this community to this board as my company has interstate parking and I spend I am I am personally on site most festival days if I'm not Jesse is here every festival day um like I've said publicly before you know if I didn't think we could be successful in achieving the desired outcomes of the intention of the cup I wouldn't be up here making these recommend commendations. Nobody's coercing me to do that. My company reputation is far more important than than what Bo would like me to stand up here and say. Um so with the past two years of success, hopefully we've overd delivered um from what everybody's expectations were and this is just yet another way that we can further improve uh upon what's already going pretty darn well. And so just just from from our end, from our professional opinion, I would love to have these tools available. And I think we can make this an even better experience for your community if we can if we can achieve that questions. No, I just I make a comment. We It's a It's We say it's a one-year trial, but this is a dayto-day right type of a trial. If it goes bad on a Saturday, Sunday, nope. Going back to seventh, right? So, >> you're 100% right. That's >> I mean I think we have enough uh circuit breakers or back stops. So, right. >> I I I um I'm going to say it again because I I'm apologize to Brad that I overstepped. Um but I would like to have a vote on both of these issues separately. Um if that's okay with the board. what you're >> well just a comment on comments on this generally or we >> I'm not going to comment on that particularly but >> sure >> generally on on this issue um I I try and balance the I want the Renaissance to be as successful as they can be >> and then I want to manage the traffic as well as we can so there isn't congestion and and liabilities for everybody else >> and then I look also at the the votes of the the planning commission and the vote of um the township and you know uh those way those those are important pieces of information they were in favor of this >> and then I look at um what's been expressed here and and the question is will this requested theirs create more or less congestion and I have a feeling actually this has a potential of protecting us against more congestion in other towards being able to backfill. You don't want to send people away and have them turn around and go somewhere else because you can't backfill. And then having an overflow lot. I mean, those are like safety valves. >> So, I I think those are good things. >> And then the fact that we have a kind of a a guard, you know, that Commissioner Wolf referred to if this doesn't work, we go back to the old way. I I um I guess I'm comfortable with the Renaissance request and I don't I don't care how we vote on them, but >> uh hello. Um I watched every second of the planning commission meeting uh more than once and and so that was very helpful. Uh I think I would have a lot more questions and a lot more to say today but for that. So, I thank everybody and especially staff who put a lot of time into this and and that's something as much as I think we want to continue to have those back stops, we also need to balance it with how much really taxpayer time is going into this and how much we want to keep coming back to it. Um, I was Yeah, I was a heck no in the beginning, but you know, my DNA, so it probably comes from that. Uh, but I've learned a lot and I think the information presented has been good. John, I'm you're I think you're right, but that there's some changes here that could actually alleviate congestion. You've you've convinced me. The two concerns I have um you know, in general, I'm supportive of both these amendments, which is very different than how I felt a couple weeks ago, and I really didn't know how any of these folks felt. um is this isn't something we can put in here, but we my request uh for and a lot of people have this request is just please continue to use transit. Please continue to do the marketing that you're doing and use it and make it even better and adjust it because this isn't going to be like every year we're going to up parking a little bit. there's a limit here and that transit needs to work for the Renaissance but for all the other businesses and all the other attractions around the area. So I I just I I ask I plead that that we continue that and we'll be your partners in that too. Um and then the the sign management and the active day of management has just been phenomenal and I think we need to continue that continue that coordination with with the sheriff's office and make sure that we are partners in it. Um, but I will say I've spent a lot of time the last couple weeks talking to folks most impacted by the traffic of of the Renaissance. And um, in general, almost everybody is supportive, especially with the backs stop of if it doesn't work, we can change it tomorrow. I think that was really, really important to them. I don't like that for the long term because I'm thinking about staff time and all that, but um so it sounds like we'll be here again next year, but my goal would be that this isn't an annual yearly thing either because we've found the perfect this is how it is now. Um and again, removing the green fairy lot was very important to me. I was very um for lots of reasons, I did not think that was a a good move. >> So there I think some of you have been wondering what I was going to say. Um, that's what I say. >> Well, I mean, this is an interesting situation because you've got a enterprise that's running at a very short window of time in a in a season on borrowed ground with new neighbors and old neighbors mining and and so there is a limit. There is a limit. I know the green fairy lot is, I think, owned. Um, but then there's some questions about what might need to happen to have that go into um, you know, operations. Maybe, maybe not someday. Um, but yeah, we're getting to those finite numbers. Um, so you're right. I don't want to be doing this every every year, but with everything that has gone on, like I said, has predated me and many of us, the frustrations, it's like I'm not also, trust me, I want lots of turkey legs sold. And I don't want to be spending a ton of taxpayer time on this. And I want people to be safe. I want people to go to their grandkids birthday parties. I want everyone to be successful. and everyone to be safe. So, yes, it has to be a one-year >> for now. Um it has to have those circuit breakers. Um that make sense for now and then hopefully we're we're we're done with this. We've built this partnership. We finally have all gotten to the same place at the same time and now it's onward and upward. Um so with that, are you looking to uh Mr. Chair, I make a motion to adopt resolution number 2025-180, approving an amendment to a conditional use permit for Mid American Festivals Corporation related to on-site parking. There is a motion on the floor. Uh second. There is a second. Is there any further discussion? I I have one item uh before we call for a vote, but is there any other discussion? >> Could amend it if you wanted to do one by one. Oh, there is that there is that >> uh I I'll leave it as it is. >> Um >> just the idea that are the safeguards on this particular resolution looking >> Yeah. Can I have a I have a question about that too. Is it any of our 746 employees of Scott County who can, >> you know, make that determination? Who's >> I wasn't thinking that one. I wasn't thinking that one. Katie just got excited back there. She was going to hopefully uh but but are the safeguards looking at Brad because votes matter staff was like hey like we're not in favor of this but with the safeguards does the safeguards included in this resolution give us those back stop circuit breakers whatever we want to come up with to revert back to a plan that we know has worked pretty well the last year or two. Are you are is staff satisfied with that language and Captain Collins is here as well? Um that we hopefully never have to do but get it in so it's done and we can another year trial and then from here onward and upward. >> Yeah. >> Staff confident in that. >> Mr. Chair, commissioner. So when it comes to the safeguard language, uh we did get the recommend recommendations from the township. I think in consultation with our county attorney uh we kind of crafted the language what we felt maybe a little bit tighter so it's uh more legally defendable if there are actions that are need to be taken on that safeguard language. Um so I think in that regard we are legally comfortable that we can act and act on that language if needed. >> All right looking in the back the boys in brown are are good the shiny badges. Um, okay. So, we have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll ask what one any further discussion. Otherwise, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed? >> No. >> All right. Uh, that has passed 4 to one. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we're going to move on. Well, you know what? In the interest of time, do we want to submit our committee reports and comm I think we're >> okay. All right, then let's let's start with item number eight and look down to my right. Commissioner Richmond. >> Thank you much, Mr. Chair. Uh July 8th, we had a workshop after the board meeting. Also on that day, I had my monthly meeting with county administrator Leslie Vermillion. Uh July 10th through 14th, I was at the Niko annual conference and policy committee meetings. Um you know, a lot of the tone there really had to do with the the impact of the federal changes on states and counties. uh around the country and what we're going to deal with that and a lot of talk about a possible or maybe even likely additional reconciliation bill coming our way from the federal government that's going to have more changes. So just a lot of uncertainty um trying to figure out how to be more ready for that, how to speak with our congressional representatives. Um did present two policy resolutions. one on our um mint choices frequency assessment that of course was again ratified by by NAO and then the other one on um uh volunteer driver mileage reimbursement rate so I wouldn't have to pay taxes on part of their mileage reimbursement so that was good um probably had about 75 80 people from Minnesota so good showing um July 16th had transportation alliance board meeting July 17th I attended the DEMC con open house on their MSW um proposed expansion. Um not not very many attendees who weren't somehow related to local government. Um July 18th had scale uh executive committee meeting. July 21st, yesterday, mentally ill and dangerous civil commitment reform task force. That task force's um report is due to the legislature here in the next couple of months. And it's it's a hard committee to be on because really it's just looking for more resources to to help that that part of the work we do and and that's going to be hard. So um getting that report ready July 22nd that's today had monthly meeting with um Health and Human Services Director Barb and Commissioner Brandon and then we all had the library board um workshop prior. That's the end of my report. Mr. Chair, >> thank you very much. Commissioner Wolf. >> Thank you Mr. Chair. On the 9th, the MEESB met uh kind of quiet there. The prior lake quarterly meeting was that afternoon. On the 10th, uh uh met with the WMO and a constituent out in Credit River. Um about some flooding that's been going out on out there. It was pretty well attended. I think there might have been 15 or 20 people out there. And um it's crazy how much when you put these houses in a little bit wherever the water's coming in and create more water coming down, how quickly these crevices can develop on a on a landscape. And so we're going to look to uh possibly the WO and others to maybe help fix that as time goes here. Um that evening Elco Market met Spring Lake Township had their meeting and then planning zoning and the big topic that uh night was the uh Renfest like we just had and then uh of course the library this morning. That's my report. >> Thank you very much, Commissioner Brennan. >> Um July 8th was the CDA meeting and they'll be here later so I don't have anything to say about that. July 10th, I had um meeting with the Shakabe mayor, city administrator um Leslie Vermillion and Commissioner Beer. Um we talked about a joint meeting um possibility that will happen in this fall, I I believe, and the topics that we would like to discuss jointly. Um July 11th, I had my meeting with Leslie Vermillion. July 15th was the Prior Lake Spring Lake watershed district um meeting and they've been discussing in workshop um ditch 13 um and they came to the conclusion in the vote um at their regular board meeting that they will go ahead with ditch 13 and taking over >> that. So I believe that will be coming to us in August. >> Um July 15th I attended the shockpiece city council meeting. Um our staff, our transportation staff did a presentation on Marshall Road and the plans for Marshall Road. Um they really did a a great job. Um and the city council supported the work that's being done. I don't know if I had anything else on that. Um July um 16th was the AMC legislative update on SNAP. July 16th was the lower Minnesota River watershed district meeting. um they have a letter coming um in response to um the letter that we sent to them regarding board the board makeup of of that board. Um seeing that Scott County is the largest um county in that in that district. Um July 22nd I had a meeting with Barb D and Barbreki on HHS. That's it. >> All right. Thank you very much Commissioner Alrich. Uh I was on vacation during some of this period. So my report is a little uh lighter than normal. Uh the ETH uh had a fish meeting uh related to goals of fish. We're having a regular working group on establishing uh targets and goals for things like posting and needs met and uh partners and affiliates growth and um vibrancy of our board and vibrancy of the network. All things are being looked at. the 10th uh 169 quarter coalition officers meeting. Uh we're going to go back to regular dues. It dues have been cut in half for the last few years. Uh we're going back to regular dues. I'm going to remain on the board. Uh the hope is that the county would continue. We talked about uh if the county did not continue with the coalition, that would really harm the viability of the coalition. So I think that'd be a very serious blow to the coalition I think if we weren't part of it. Um so I think we we should take it a year at a time and and I'm hoping we'll stay one more year with the coalition and and evaluate it on a yeartoyear basis. But obviously we do that anyhow evaluate everything in a year-to-year basis. the 21st, the MVTA management committee. I suggested that MVTA needs to work harder on the relationship with Scott County >> and um Luther volunteered that he wants to have more regular meetings with us, you know, whether that would be the Scott County Transportation Committee or workshop or whatever, but uh he's ready and willing to work harder and on that. I think I think that needs to be happening in all of um Scott County. There there are questions, you know, of how is MVTA doing in Savage or Prior Lake or Shakape. I think there's some fun things that are going to be happening with transit in Shaki related to their amphitheater that they've got special trolleys designed that >> that uh will be pretty excit pretty fun. Fish executive committee that same day. We have a whole um group of policies to guide our director and our staff and including um detailed time reports of how time has been spent on so um you know attorney has to account for every 15 minutes I think and a lot of firms are >> six minutes okay we're not asking for that from our fish director and our you know our support staff but probably every half hour you know how did you use your time you know >> good >> so there's going to be greater accountability. Then I had a meeting uh a little coffee with Jim Peterson yesterday just to hear his thoughts on the Renaissance Festival. >> That's it. >> All right. Thank you very much. Uh for me 78 uh postboard workshop 79 MESB. We talked uh brought up the question about hey are we collectively we talking about regionalizing some of our 911 and public safety communications? And um so that's that's front of mind, but maybe not happening as fast as maybe we would like, but we'll see. >> But what what was the response? >> Uh actually, she's like, "This keeps me up at night, Jill, the executive director, which I'm like I I'm I'm like I'm sorry you're not sleeping, but awesome that this is front of mind." >> Okay, good. Thank you. >> Yes. Yes. Cuz I was I was not 100% sure. And so, but how do we as a board collectively move that forward and so that it's not just a back burner? Um, it may be back there because it's going to take some time, but but it's not a back burner issue, but it's a front burner issue, but it's going to take some time. So, I was um again, so I bought her some uh ambient. I don't know what. So, she sleeps at night. Um and then so then later that afternoon, uh Prior Lake Quarterly, as maybe you know or don't know, they're going to be having a parks referendum on the ballot this fall. I think it's like 60 million plus or minus. >> Um the very next day uh starting reverse I had to shock it quarterly and we were out at Sand Venture which was awesome. >> Um newly re uh opened remodeled renovated and we were in Tommy's malt shop. Tommy's is now in Shakabe in Scott County. So >> u and they're going to be open um 365. But it was interesting. So one day I was at the parley quarterly. The park referendum wasn't there was just a piece of it. But shock of being talked about I want to I want to understand that more that that they charge their parks >> rent >> a a a rent of sorts where they're collecting these fees over time and that's what they Yeah. You you you were on that council. So to to know um have these funds available to update, redo, change, subtract, add to parks. Just an interesting scenario just two days apart. Um, Scott County Prevention Coalition. I only peaked in there just for uh 15 20 minutes. That was one of their first back in person. So, I wanted to at least pop back in there, but they had get to the shock bey quarterly, which is a great meeting. And also the fish monthly. There were a lot of people there. There was a lot of people there for that particular meeting. There was food, you know, Minnesota food fund fellowship. So, I don't know if that's um but there's a lot of bodies in there. So, that was good. Uh 15th as was mentioned joined commissioner Brennan um um at the Shockby Council where our transportation staff did do the presentation. Shockby staff did appreciate the work and was noted um and ultimately were in a spot to support that latest designs. Um and I was having some real-time communications with some folks in the neighborhoods that particular night. So that was on the 15th. And then u this morning the 722 library advisory board. Uh, that's it for me. Looking down. Item n number nine. >> I am nothing, Mr. Chairman. >> All right. County administrator. Nothing. How about let's go for two for two. >> Mr. Chair, commissioners. Nothing from us. >> Okay. All right. That's always good. Quiet uh from the attorneys. Um, so before we adjourn, we are going to be meeting next uh in a workshop setting, which is just like this meeting. This meeting is always open to the public. Um, and always noted notified on our website. These workshops are also open to the public. We're going to be listening and hearing from community corrections, a CDA budget presentation, and then as we end a commissioner round robin for any open item. So >> motion to adjurnn. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> We are adjourned.